Assault on Landown
The Assault on Landown was a major battle during Operation: Hollow Storm. Where Coalition forces must captured the dig zone in Landown city which was a Locust stronghold for yearly ten years. Background After another failed Locust raid on Jacinto, this time directed at the local hospital, the failure of the Lightmass bomb to wipe out all the Locust, as well as the sinking of the cities of Tollen and Montevado, COG High Command decided that if humanity was to survive, then the impossible would have to been accomplished: an all out attack on the Locust's home turf, the Hollow. It was decided that the abandoned mountain community of Landown would be the staging ground for this offensive, as it was the only place on the Jacinto Plateau that was suitable to dig through. The plan was for a massive column of Derricks carrying numerous squads of Gears and supported by large numbers of fighting vehicles to assault the town and establish a beachhead upon which the Gears could drill down to reach the inner Hollow, and destroy the Locust breeding grounds; and hopefully their Queen. The COG massed thousands of Gears, ranging from fresh recruits, conscripts, former prisoners to hardened veterans. For Chairman Prescott and the COG leadership, this was humanity's last stand. After fifteen years of a brutal war of attrition, soon humanity would not have the strength to hold onto Jacinto, thus the Coalition was desperate to finish the war for good. The Road to Landown Street by Street, House by House Locust Counterattack After aligning the Derricks and establishing defenses, E-Holes appeared from underneath the graves of soldiers that had died in the Pendulum Wars and Locust troops began a massive assault, hoping to eliminate the Gears before they could deploy into the Hollow. Many Drones began to set up mortars, while thousands more Drones assaulted the Derricks directly, assisted by dozens of Boomers and air support from Reavers, pinning down many Gears onto their Rigs. The humans put up a tough resistance, with some Gears manning the Chain Guns, and hundreds of Locust died within the first few minutes of the fighting. However, the Gears took casualties too, and several Derricks along with their squad perished under the onslaught before the combined firepower of the humans drove the enemy off. After a short but heavy battle, Delta and the other Gears were able to enter their Grindlifts. At that moment, Locust reinforcements, led by Skorge, leader of the Kantus priests, proceeded to assault the COG staging area, killing several Gears and destroying a Centaur Tank. In the end, Delta and many other Gears successfully deployed into the Hollows, but at the cost of the dig zone. Outcome and Aftermath The Assault on Landown was a considerable strategic victory for the Coalition of Ordered Governments, as the success of the engagement allowed the Gears to take the offensive against the Locust for the first time in many years, whilst sustaining heavy losses that the COG would struggle to recuperate from. After over a decade of watching as the Locust pushed them further and further, humanity got the chance to strike back for a change, taking the initiative against their subterranean foe. Losses on both sides were heavy, with hundreds of Gears and dozens of their vehicles lost in the effort to take Landown, compared to the thousands of Locust killed. As such, the success of the operation was lessened for the COG, but the strategic gain of hitting the Inner Hollow for the first time led their leadership to deem these losses reasonable. References Category:Battles Category:Events Category:COG military victories